Aurecon: In late March, global engineering and infrastructure
advisory firm Aurecon’s Dr Kourosh Kayvani, Global Director of
Excellence and Expertise, was invited to be the industry voice on an Engineers
Australia panel, representing Aurecon as a major recruiter of global
engineering talent.

Attended by over 100 senior decision-makers from
public, private and non-government organisations, the event launched
Engineers Australia’s latest research on the fast approaching
skills shortage about to hit the Australian engineering profession.

The ensuing panel discussion with some of Australia’s
leading educators and a senior level, engaged audience quickly hit the
airwaves and social media.

Drawing on the latest data on skilled migration,
school
Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) studies and
the transitions to universities, the report highlighted some alarming
STEM statistics, and what this might mean for Australia’s ambition of
becoming an innovative and globally competitive nation.

The data drew attention to how universities are
currently struggling to attract enough male and female talent with the
right STEM background, with Australia increasingly relying on migration
to build its engineering
workforce.

The report is part of a focused push by
the engineering profession and Aurecon’s own leaders to educate our
policy makers and educators about the role and importance of the
engineer and designer across a wide range of pressing public policy
issues.

Engineers are a critical resource if we are to manage
effectively the enormous investment in infrastructure we have made in
Australia, including the role of infra-technology and digitisation, as
well as the need to redesign Australia’s energy systems,
and to exploit the opportunities that may arise from the
reinvigorated defence industry.

Aurecon’s Dr Kayvani reminded the audience that
demand for engineering talent and designers able to use cross
disciplinary skills was also on the increase from the private sector,
driven by digital
disruption, the advent of smarter transport systems,
intelligent road networks, intelligent buildings, and the increasing use
of automation, robotics and artificial
intelligence across manufacturing and construction.

Asked about the impact on the built environment, Dr
Kayvani said it was crucial for engineers to advise governments on
strategic level infrastructure policy decisions or risk unseen issues
arising from the fast changing digital or energy landscape.

“Australia’s massive
mining, energy and resources industries, and their extensive
transport systems are in the process of responding to fast
changing innovations with the arrival of drones, 3D virtual reality
tools and autonomous vehicles.

“These challenges are changing the types of skills
employers like Aurecon are looking for, and have led Aurecon to develop
its own, in-house post-graduate training for its people, called the
Aurecon Design Academy, in partnership with universities such as UTS and
RMIT,” explained Dr Kayvani, who is himself a Visiting Professorial
Fellow at UNSW and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney.

Universities understand very well that their
responsibility for training the workforce of the future means they must
be ready for constant change.

“Tomorrow’s engineers will increasingly have access
to machine learning, automation and a global pool of expertise, making
it imperative that they are able to go up the value chain,” said Dr
Kayvani.

“In the past, training followed a cookie cutter
approach towards problem solving, involving predefined problems and
logical solutions. Instead, we now need to look at how we frame these
challenges, which are increasingly unpredictable and globalised,
involving solutions across multiple disciplines and multiple facets,” he
said. Dr Kayvani further highlighted the importance of diversity of
discipline, gender, age and culture within teams as an enabler of
accessing (stimulating) the diverse thinking needed to unlock
forward-thinking solutions to some of today’s biggest challenges.

Panel member Professor John Wilson of Swinburne
University of Technology and the incoming President of the Council of
Engineering Deans, representing 35 schools of engineering that graduate
around 10 000 engineers per annum, commented: “We are aware of the
demand for change and are introducing new models of teaching
engineering. Studio-based leaning and internships are on the horizon.

“All four panel members reinforced the importance of
closer cooperation between industry, schools, and universities through
partnerships and internships. Working with industry partners allows
hands-on experience and exposure to these challenges of the future, so
necessary to avoid students being left behind.”

The two panel members representing the teaching of
STEM in schools – Phil A’Damo who runs the Victorian Government’s Tech
Schools initiative and Veena Near who represents STEM teachers – focused
on the importance of engaging and inspiring children at grass roots
level with the dream of engineering.

They said that this meant providing opportunities for
children to take on the role of problem solvers for their own
communities. Participating in studio-based learning, national
competitions such as Aurecon’s School Bridge Building Competition or
solving community problems is more likely to stimulate students to take
up engineering related subjects.

The report shows that fewer and fewer young people
are studying advanced science and maths subjects needed for jobs such as
engineering and outlines the urgent need to reverse the trend and train
more engineers in Australia.

The panel called on the Government to focus on
developing an engineering pipeline strategy that extends beyond a
national STEM school education strategy, incorporating industry and
population policies, as well as an education policy at all levels
including primary, secondary and tertiary.

In summing up, Engineers Australia’s Victorian
Division President Chris Stoltz warned that Australia faces the real
risk of having to offshore its engineering needs, and becoming a
consumer of new technology rather than a producer.

The report also recommended the overhaul of the
skilled migration process to ensure migrant engineers, who currently
represent 57% of engineers working in Australia, have the right skills
to match the country’s engineering areas of needs, such as in emerging
technology.

“Practically all goods and services consumed or used
in production embodies engineering, yet we continue to drop down the
world’s innovation indices as we struggle as a nation to build our
engineering capability,” said Stoltz.